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Immortal E-mail Lists

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Errata and Rule Clarifications
 - Player's Guide Errata
 - Narrator's Guide Errata

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IMMORTAL E-MAIL LISTS

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The e-mail lists serve as open forums where Players, Narrators and anyone else can discuss the game in its various forms and participate in e-mail based online games.  Rules discussions, game concepts and other ideas are freely traded.  A small amount of rules interpretation and clarification is also provided by lead game designer Rick Don.  Both lists are hosted by Yahoo Groups, providing an archive of previous postings and discussions.

The following summarizes the current public mailing lists available:

The Paragons List

  • The Paragons list is for the discussion of all things Immortal.  Narrators, Players, Publishers, and just about anyone with an interest in the game can talk about its various facets.
  • To subscribe to the list, simply send an email to paragons-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, once we have had a chance to make sure you are a real e-mail account and not some form of spam or solicitation, you will be joined to the group and can begin posting immediately.
  • Once you have subscribed you can go to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/paragons/ and modify your membership if you have a Yahoo Groups account.

The Immortal RPG List

  • The Immortal RPG list is used to run short term online email-based games.  Anyone may join, but not everyone may post.
  • To subscribe to the list, simply send an email to immortalrpg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, once we have had a chance to make sure you are a real e-mail account and not some form of spam or solicitation, you will be joined to the group.  You will not be able to post unless you are part of a current game.
  • Once you have subscribed you can go to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/immortalrpg/ and modify your membership if you have a Yahoo Groups account.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Have a question?  See our Contact Page.
For questions concerning actual game play, rules clarifications and corrections, see the Errata page.


Q:  What is Immortal Invisible War?

  • A:  A role playing game developed in the late 1980's by artist Ran Valerhon and originally published in 1993 by Precedence Publishing.  You can find out more on our "What is Immortal?" page.

Q:  What do the Immortal Invisible War books cost?

  • A:  Nothing, the game is distributed as free downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF files (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free product from Adobe).  In fact we encourage you to post the game books to other sites to make available for download there.  You simply need to note the original site (www.invisiblewar.com) where the file came from and make no changes to the book files (they are copyrighted material).  The website accepts donations through PayPal to assist in funding the website, but there is no mandatory cost for the game books. 

Q:  What is the current version of Immortal?

  • A:  The current version of Immortal is 3rd Edition, the timeline in the canon Immortal game-universe is roughly one year behind real-world time.

Q: What is a Narrator?

  • A:  The Narrator runs the game, sets the scene, develops and plays the other characters aside from the ones the players create and play.  Whether it is a major antagonist or a bit-player in a scene, the Narrator is responsible for providing the details of the world the players' characters interact in, as well as the motivations and personality for the other characters the players' characters will meet and interact with.  He is director, actor, and partial script writer.  Many games refer to this person as the gamemaster.  However, Immortal is meant to feel more like an epic movie than a paper-and-pen based game.  We avoid the use of that term.

Q: Is Immortal rules-light or rules-heavy?

  • A:  The first half of the Player's Guide provides a rich introduction to the Immortal game universe, it contains no mechanics.  In that sense it is a very rules-light game where story, drama and character growth -- outside of paper statistics -- are the main focus.  It provides enough inspiration and ideas for players to develop interesting and unique characters.  Roughly one-third of the Narrator's Guide is also full of non-mechanics information to allow the Narrator and players to build on that.  However, the Narrator's Guide also provides a large amount of advanced rules and game mechanics; if you need them there are rules for explosions, falling, fire, martial arts, building custom magical powers, optional combat and skill rules, etc.  This allows players to give add a light sense of realism to their game, or they can be ignored completely to allow for those larger than life characters and scenes that you'd expect from epic literature and other media.

Q:  Is Immortal "term" heavy?

  • A:  In terms of mechanics no, an action is an action, a round is a round, much the same as in any other role playing game; we didn't see a need to reinvent the wheel.  However, Immortal does have its own campaign universe and setting, and there are terms used for that.  However, most of the terms used are actually pulled from common usage.  For example, the supernatural disadvantages a character might have normally go by the simple term of "curses".  In this way, terms that need to be learned are kept to a minimum of those highly specific to the Immortal game universe.  Other terms that you'd expect to find across multiple game genres tend are the same as in those other genres, so you can quickly remember them.

Q: What is the Great Betrayal?

  • A:  The Great Betrayal is an event in the canon game-universe.  During this event, one of the larger factions of the himsati race, the Anopheles, turned traitor and divulged the secrets of their brother and sister factions to the Droves (other immortals who are the enemies of the Twelve Tribes).  This led to the wholesale destruction of many of the sanctuaries of the tribes and led to a the Betrayal War, a very brief violent period lasting from late 1999 to early 2003.  Afterwards, the various members of the himsati race reconvened in the mythical realm of Atlantis and officially formed the Twelve Tribes.  Prior to the Great Betrayal the Twelve Tribes were known as the Prides of the Stratagem:  a jaded set of factions mostly intent on dominating one another through contests of combative one-upmanship and political influence.  The time period of the Great Betrayal takes place in the 2nd Edition of Immortal known as Immortal Millennium.

Q:  Is there any relation between Immortal Invisible War and the movie, television show, video game or music band also known as Immortal?

  • A:  No, there is no relation.  An idea was pitched for an television series to the same company that produced the Babylon 5 television series.  However, the then-publisher of the game, Precedence Entertainment -- went out of business.

Q:  What are the currently available products for Immortal?

  • A:  There is a 248 page Player's Guide, the 270 page Narrator's Guide, and the Immortal Character Sheet.  All are available as free PDF downloads from this website's Downloads section.  There are no physical in-print books for 3rd Edition.  Books for prior editions can usually be found circulating on the net, through various auction sites, and as part of some older stock for various gaming, comic and books stores.

Q:  Will there be physical books for sale?

  • A:  No.  Due to issues with the original publisher over the creation of the 2nd Edition, the game's original creator took back control of the product and a decision was made to continue on with a 3rd Edition to clarify and rectify those issues.  As part of the decision and as a favor to long-time fans and potential new fans, 3rd Edition is an absolutely free publication with no cost, therefore at this time it remains in downloadable electronic format only.

Q:  Are there any plans for any future releases?

  • A:  Yes, Tribal Law versus Dragon's Rule will be the third and final core book for Immortal Invisible War, detailing the Twelve Tribes of the Himsati, the Droves, and other various groups (both human and immortal).  It will include their history, details on their culture.  There will be other releases, but until Tribal Law is near completion, we are not going to speculate on what will be released next; we are going to base it heavily on fan input.

Q:  Does Immortal make use of meta-plots?

  • A:  Yes ... and no.  The original concept for Immortal was developed by Ran Ackels as part of a free-form role-playing game.  A big fan of mythology in his art and writing, Mr. Ackels does have his own Immortal story that he has told through the game, but we do not believe that you -- as Narrators and Players -- should be forced to simply retell that story.  So while a few plot developments that are key only to Ran Valerhon's own story will not be revealed, all other "meta-plots" will be revealed in the forthcoming "Tribal Law versus Dragon's Rule" core sourcebook, so that Narrators have any and all background material to explain the current state of affairs in the Immortal game universe, but leave the room necessary to forge ahead with their own stories.

Q: If there aren't really any meta-plots, how does the canon timeline and story unfold?

  • A:  Immortal's canon timeline and story unfolds based in large part on the input and game outcomes of our fans.  These have directed the story over the last decade.  For example, the events behind the Great Betrayal, who turned traitor and who turned away from the tribes, were based mostly on fan input:  in the original concept for the Great Betrayal campaign, it was the Arachne who turned traitor and not the Anopheles.  Fan input caused it to be changed when everything was published coming into 3rd Edition.
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